Plenty of Hulk, But No Standalone Movie

Bruce Banner himself has officially confirmed it. There will be no standalone Incredible Hulk movies anytime soon. It has nothing to do with the fact that the last such film, 2008’s THE INCREDIBLE HULK, was not a ratings monster. And it has even less to do with Ang Lee’s dysfunctional 2003 HULK, which was really a remake of KING KONG if Kong were hairless and green. Marvel could easily overcome such past failures these days. Look at the hype the new Spider-Man movie is getting, fresh on the heels of the tacky and terrible AMAZING SPIDER-MAN 2. Just the fact that it would be a Marvel movie, produced by Marvel Studios, would be enough to get people into the theater to see it. No, Marvel won’t give us another standalone Hulk film because they don’t want to share.

Back before Marvel Studios became such a box-office juggernaut and before Disney bought the big M and made it even more of a force to be reckoned with, Marvel farmed out a lot of their properties, and Universal still owns the rights to any standalone film. They do not, however, have any claim on the Hulk character. That’s why Marvel is going to put the Green Goliath in a bunch of its upcoming films. He’ll just have to share the screen with other prominent Marvel characters, is all. Which, come to think of it, is not in any way a bad thing.